From the hands of quacks.....

Past and present, how are the two connected? How does the past influence the present and into the future regarding deaf and hard of hearing people?  You have your quacks back then in history's time and then you have some more quacks today. Here's a guy gal who has an interest in studying the medical past and how it impacted society:

I am a PhD candidate at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Toronto. My research broadly focuses on early nineteenth century developments in English medicine and biology. In particular, I am interested in how medical communities defined and dealt with diseases and how these definitions had an impact on society. I am also interested in medical technology, especially diagnostic technologies.

Currently, my research focuses on early nineteenth century developments in aural surgery, a branch of medicine focused on treating and classifying ear diseases. In particular, I am examining the life and time of the aurist John Harrison Curtis (1778-1856), who was amongst the first “self-professed” aurists of the day.

The title of my blog, “From the Hands of Quacks,” derives from the otologist Joseph Toynbee (1815-1866), who infamously declared he planned to “rescue aural surgery from the hands of quacks.” Considering how I’m also examining the tension-filled relationship between “reputable” medical practitioners and “quack” aurists, I thought this line would be fitting for my dissertation title. What comes after the colon, I haven’t figured out yet.

And be sure to read his her recent blog (and his her later ones) covering the subject of deafness and the medical applications or quackery that were attempted on people with hearing loss or in his words "aural diseases." Lots of contents to cover if you want to delve in this historical perspective from a different angle.

It's one thing to learn about the history and its mistakes, it's another thing to dwelve on it every single minute of it in the name of political correctness and the gnashing of the teeth like some people are wont to do. Well, this guy sure makes it interesting.

A Poll: How much money you are willing to spend on technology for better work potential?

For deaf and hard of hearing people, how much money are you willing to spend on technology to ensure a better career path, business opportunities and/or promotion potential?

Meeting halfway....

I don't really get it when you have people who make the claim on how easy it is to set up an electronic face to face communication method such as using one or two laptops or tablets to communicate with a hearing person but do deaf people really take advantage of that technology? Instead I think many deaf people would rather opt out for a paper and pen situation in a family, social setting and make excuses for using such a method. From Deaf Echo one commenter gave an example of that of the pen and paper limitation.

I brought a bunch of notepads and pens to a family Thanksgiving dinner once and at the start of the evening, politely informed everyone that I didn't want to miss anything, so would they please write to me? I got two messages the entire night (both from the same distant cousin). One was "How is school?" and the other was some other statement I don't remember anymore. Very superficial. I responded in voice... was perfectly willing to meet everyone halfway... didn't happen. That was the last big family gathering like that that I ever attended. No bitterness or anger... I just stopped going. The burden of communication shouldn't be only on the deaf person. It should be shared by everyone, especially by those who profess to love that deaf person the most (his or her family). If that's not going to happen, especially if the deaf person in question directly ASKS for that, then there's no point in keeping up with pretenses. Just my view on it.

Using the paper and pen route isn't exactly an ideal way to communicate effectively, especially in this day and age of communication technology, with your family members and not have real conversations using one liners which makes the whole conversation a tedious and boring process.  Not a very engaging and interactive way of communicating.  For example, read what Richard Hurst, Clois James, and Ashleigh Smith had to say when they took advantage of an existing communication technology in social settings with their family members using a face to face communication device.

If a technology exist that makes face to face communication possible, regardless what that device is,  then why not take advantage of that technology instead of using the boring pen and paper method? Using such a technology can certainly help make conversations that much more engaging. Hearing people or non-sign language users would be much more apt to converse using a face to face communication technology than the old pen and paper method.

Capitalizing on what works

There's this fixation over the word "fix" when it comes to certain people with hearing loss, especially of those with greater hearing loss.  The word "fix" doesn't necessarily mean a permanent solution but rather a way to utilize a solution that best improve a condition. It's more of a correction and supplement to an existing condition rather than a "fix" per se but I understand exactly where people are coming from when they say that. Just as glasses helps fix poor eyesight or people with a variety of vision loss. You take off your glasses, you still can't see well. You take off your hearing aid or cochlear implant you cannot hear very well or none at all. It's utilizing what senses you have left by capitalizing the power of technology. Each of us has a hearing loss that is different ranging from mild to profound, bilateral or unilateral hearing loss. It's a fix, it's a correction but there is nothing permanent about it when comes to those adjustments being made. The question becomes whether people with hearing loss will capitalize on that or not. Some do. Some don't. Some won't. What works for me, works for me and has nothing to do with you. All we can do is respect the diversity out there. Not everybody signs. Not everybody can hear like the next person. We're all different. It doesn't matter if a person prefers to speak and listen, and don't know sign language, what matters is that we understand that diversity exists and we must respect that and the communication and language options for all those deaf and hard of hearing people out there. What works for me doesn't mean it will work for other people with hearing loss, deaf or hard of hearing with bilateral or unilateral hearing loss. What works for you doesn't mean it'll work for other people as well. I simply capitalize on what works for me.

Cool tech at Walk4Hearing

Technology on communication access continues to improve especially for people with hearing loss. At all of the Walk4Hearing events this year you can get streaming live captioning on your smart phone.

Attention Walkers! Remember to bring your smart phones with you to the Walk because we will be streaming live CART to web-enabled smart phones. All pre-Walk speeches will be captioned on your iPhone, BlackBerry*, or Droid. So don’t leave your smart phone at home!

On Walk day all walkers who have their smart phone can go to www.quickcaption.com. There on the website homepage will be a large purple Walk4Hearing icon. Simply click the icon, click the "CC" icon next to your Walk location, real time captioning will be enabled and displayed on your smart phone. This great service is provided by Quick Caption.

*To view the captions on the BlackBerry, you will need to be running the BlackBerry OS version 4.6 or higher, enable JavaScript, and set the browser type to BlackBerry. Then open the live event with the BlackBerry browser.

This is truly an example of diversity and understanding the needs of people with hearing loss when it comes to communication access.

When technology allows 100% communication access to language anytime

Imagine this futuristic scenario that may come sooner than later within our lifetime. Forget stem cells or gene therapy and consider the use of technology as the ultimate the answer to every deaf and hard of hearing person's communication needs. One hundred percent accessible to language and communication for every deaf or hard of hearing person. A technology so advanced, its own processor power, artificial intelligence built into a micro-computer smaller than the smallest hearing aid. It has the computational ability to pick up sound, voices, speech patterns, advanced speech recognition algorithms, artificial intelligence, smart grammar software and such that it's able to process spoken words almost instantly in the form of captioned words that would seemingly float before your eye in specially designed eyewear (or perhaps contact lens). No more would you guess what a person might be saying and instead understand 100% of what was spoken to you in a conversation. The ability converse in either a noisy or quiet environment would be easy as apple pie. Let's say this technology come into existence 50 to 75 years from now. That's 2 or 3 generations away.

If available today would you love to have this piece of non-invasive, highly intelligent piece of technology and software? And become easily part of the hearing world at your own time and choosing? Would you love to have this piece of this technology?

Who wouldn't?

Now, imagine this technology does become available and it'd be relatively inexpensive to own. Wouldn't that be fantastic?

Ok. Let's go a step further. That means just about every deaf and hard of hearing person from little children to adults could have this piece of technology just as easily as wearing a hearing aid or eye glasses. It would become so easy for users become an integral part of the hearing world indistinguishable from anything else. A technology so advanced that it would allow 100 percent access to communication and language in the written form without the need for interpreters. Would this piece of technology eventually make obsolete the concept of a deaf/hh community? What about the Deaf community? Would this advanced technology actually create a disincentive on the need to learn sign language when a deaf or hh can easily help with the communication in a hearing world? How would this technology impact on the socialization of deaf and hard of hearing people? What about the size of the Deaf community? Would it go down because of this technology?

Just food for thoughts, folks.

Oh, by the way, people are working on such an idea for several years now. Like here, here, and this video example this year that shows exactly where we are going with eyewear video and speech recognition ability. It's only a matter of time until we get to the point of total indepence with the full and complete ability to interact with the hearing world in person at anytime and any place.

How valuable is communication?

You heard the old adage about setting up a successful business and that's "Location, location, location!" But when it comes to ensuring success in everyday lives, especially in the world of business, it's "Communication, communication, communication!" no matter who you are dealing with.

So, how valuable is communication among deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing people? Is it social value? Business value? Personal value? If you're a business entrepreneur or a deaf/hh worker who deal with hearing people on a daily basis how valuable would communication be? If you had a product that ensures a free and open communication with anybody who knows how to type would you use one?

We already saw a glimpse on just how valuable communication is when YouTube (owned by Google) announced their first ever voice to text recognition service on their website enabling greater communication access to potentially millions of people who are deaf and hard of hearing. This is a smart and savvy marketing move. Exactly how valuable is automatic voice-to-text communication when it comes to voice or speech recognition technology? What about voice messages on your phone into text like Google voice as seen in this captioned video? How valuable would it be between two different languages over the phone? Voice recognition technology isn't perfect yet as you can see here in this latest video which is already shown to be extremely error prone (and something I think could in fact turn out to be a PR nightmare for Google/YouTube if it's really that bad).

For deaf and hard of hearing people communication is obviously quite valuable and that technology will be the answer in helping level the playing field. There is already one device that allows face-to-face communication called "UbiDuo" which enabled one Sam's Club employee who is deaf to communicate among his peers, supervisors, and customers and because of that he was able to get himself promoted 3 times.



How valuable is communication when it comes to business? In Sam's Club case the UbiDuo was worth more than its weight in gold because it helped increase productivity and efficiency. The Sam's Club manager as seen in the video realized that it was "Communication, communication, communication!" that made the difference and recommended that a face-to-face communication device ought to be in all retail outlets.

It would definitely help every retail establishment. Any retail establishment that wants to connect with anyone hearing impaired needs something like this product. Because it's very impersonal without it. But with it you can talk to them, you can get their needs, you don't have to guess. You know exactly what they want. And it makes the member or customer feel better because they feel like they have some power now versus before they were kind of hoping they found what they needed and if they didn't, oh weel, they probably didn't ask.

Sometimes it takes a communication product for somebody to realize the importance of just how valuable communication is in the world of people who are deaf and hard of hearing, and doing business with them is all about communication, communication, communication!!

Hearing aid powered by body heat. No more batteries.

It's coming.

Publication Date: 29-30 May 2009
On page(s): 1-4
Location: Cetraro,
ISBN: 978-1-4244-3598-2
INSPEC Accession Number: 10790979
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/MEMEA.2009.5167942
Current Version Published: 2009-07-21

Energy harvesting from human body has been undergoing an interesting and quick development thanks to the technological availability of new electronic components and the growing of different applications, in particular, for biomedical and social impacts on human beings' daily life. The main scope of this paper is to modeling and to design a thermoelectric generator that extracts energy from human tissue warmth in order to supply a biomedical hearing prosthesis for deaf persons. An array of sensors based on thermocouple effect has been used. A conditioning and accumulator circuitry has been designed and tested.

This would be ideal for any hearing aids whether it's behind the ear, in the ear, or even for future implantable hearing aids.

Oh, yeah.

Interview with President of AGBell

New AGBell President, Jay Wyant, celebrated his swearing-in on June 30 with a guest appearance on the Milwaukee local FOX show "Wake Up Milwaukee." Since Fox 6 news did not provide captioning or a transcript for those in the audience with hearing loss, AGBell provided the captioning themselves. An unfortunate and ironic twist considering that Fox 6 news interviewed a deaf person who is the president of a nationally known organization for deaf and hard of hearing people and parents of children with hearing loss.

Recently, one blogger, RLM, made this wild claim about Jay Wyant before AGBell added captioning in their video link of the Fox 6 news interview:

Why the new AGBell president, Jay Wyant, solely appeared on the Milwaukee WITI FOX News' Health Center segment without someone from the DBC to offer the counter-argument on the ongoing controversy on the educational method and language acquisition and development?

Apparently, if you watch the captioned video by AGBell (note, be sure click on "CC" symbol to turn on the closed captioning), you can easily tell that no arguments were made at all at anytime regarding any topics such as educational method or language acquisition and development. I am hoping that RLM will publicly acknowledge this error of his.

UPDATE: It's a bit ironic considering the lack of captioning or available transcript by Fox 6 news but even more so coming from AGBell's website that linked to that video of the Fox 6 news interview with Jay Wyant who, again more irony here, used to be the Marketing Director for CaptionMax and has extensive in telecommunications and technology accessbility background as described in here. It certainly behooves AGBell to at least offer a transcript of the Fox 6 news even though it was the news station's utlimate responsibility in providing a text version of the interview for those who cannot hear or understand well the spoken word. A transcript should have been provided by AGBell once they thought about linking to a non-captioned Fox 6 news interview of their own president. But it took a hard of hearing person, me, to do all this wokr just so the rest of ya'll can have that equal access. Yet it took several hours to get all this prepared by listening and writing down the words and putting them into captioned form along with a transcript. Yet, I'm not going use laziness or the "purity" route as an excuse not to provide captioning or a transcript when many of you know you can do it anyway but don't. You are what you do.

Jay Wyant, are you listening to what I'm saying?

Great interview, though.

UPDATE II: I removed the YouTube video of my captioning effort and transcript from my blog since AGBell now has their captioned video of the interview. Of course, done by CaptionMax. Good for them. And I wonder why it took them so long? Yet I was about 98 to 98% accurate despite Jay's voice, which is still very intelligible. And I commend him for speaking and using his voice in front of a camera. That takes courage and shows full confidence in his ability to speak and have a dialogue.

A Keyboard-less Computer Era at Gallaudet University?

In about 5 years perhaps that just might happen according to Bill Gates as a start when computer keyboards start to phase out in favor of speech interfacing:

“In five years, Microsoft expects more Internet searches to be done through speech than through typing on a keyboard” Gates also stated that Microsoft is following up its support of UC but will use both speech and text interfaces for information access and search technologies."

Now, can you imagine Gallaudet students sitting in front of their computers at one of Gallaudet University's computer rooms 10 years down the road with nary a keyboard in sight trying to talk to a computer by asking it to look up a particular subject while doing an internet search for a homework assignment? Don't worry, even today hearing people have trouble with their OnStar computer recognition software on the simple task of saying a phone number for the car's computer to dial out. Though it's too bad that Gallaudet University does not seem to have an interest in Christian Vogler's work on his years of work on computer ASL recognition while he was at Gallaudet University. Will Gallaudet University sit around hoping ASL-recognition technology will come to them? Or will Gallaudet University be the catalyst to encourage and support on the development of ASL recognition software on their own campus instead? Five years away isn't that far off before things begin to change.


"Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." — Capt. Jean-Luc Picard

When Technology Produces a Shift in Communication Model Thinking

How interesting it is to watch people react to a certain technology being used and how it changes people’s perception for the better when it comes to communication access issues.

For example, some Deaf people are sometimes vexed on trying to be completely loyal by adhering to an “ASL-only world” in all situations versus wanting total independence when it comes to communication (i.e. ability to freely communicate with anybody even those who do not sign) and the feeling of inclusion. But they are faced with a reality that living in an “ASL-only world” is not always possible (unless you happened to live on the campus of Gallaudet University) due to numerous reasons (e.g. interpreter shortages, lack of quality interpreters, unavailable interpreter nearby, timeliness of interpreters showing up, scheduling conflicts, 3rd party “independence” or your “shadow,” hiring costs, and so on). Not all Deaf people have this access to this “ASL-only world” in every situation. One good example of how one piece of technology continues to help solve one communication situation between deaf and hearing people and that is the UbiDuo communication device. But over the last year or so there has been some fear and backlash about the UbiDuo thinking it is meant to permanently replace ASL interpreters, must have good English skills or that the device “threatens” Deaf culture.

“This is not about replacing interpreters,” Curry said. “This is about the power of face-to-face communication and the ability to strike up a conversation on the spot.”

"There is a lot of misperception that deaf people with strong (American Sign Language skills) can’t use it, 95 percent of our (UbiDuo) customers are ASL users. It doesn’t matter if your English is good or bad.” - Jason Curry (co-founder and CEO of sComm, Inc).

Now, if several hundred UbiDuo devices were sold since beginning of last year mostly to customers who are ASL users then shouldn’t that fact alone be enough to dispel the notion that using such a technology cannot destroy Deaf culture? Or that user is required to be proficient or “perfect” in the English language to use the UbiDuo? Facing the unknown can produce irrational fear. Jason reiterates his point again in his latest UbiDuo newsletter about English skills.

Some people (hearing and deaf/hard of hearing) think that ASL users can’t use the UbiDuo because of their English skills. I want to emphasize that ASL users with low level English can and do use the UbiDuo. So many clients who use ASL have made it clear to us that they are thrilled to have the ability to communicate independently and freely for themselves with hearing people. Don Garretson, a strong ASL user, made this statement: “It is not about my English, it is about me being able to talk to anyone I want on my own.” sComm is committed to giving those who are deaf or hard of hearing the power to converse independently and freely no matter what their grammar skill levels are.

Also, another shift in communication model thinking involves several hospitals, such as hospitals under the Baptist Health System Beaches in Florida, which purchased several UbiDuo devices last year to help address their “special needs communication” area. But it’s not what you think if you’re thinking about “special needs” part of it. Rather, the UbiDuo is mostly geared toward hearing patients. At first, people assumed that the device will receive little support but the reaction was the opposite. There was lots of overwhelming support for this device in the clinical area.

For example, in one hospital in Florida a staff took the UbiDuo communication device around to various in-patient and out-patient units where various staff members worked and simply placed the UbiDuo on the counter without saying a word and began typing. Every staff member from various hospital units that came into contact with the machine figured out how to operate it within a few seconds. And opened up a conversation using the communication device and showed how easy it is to use such a communication system.

Hospitals like the ones under the Baptist Health Systems Beaches are now exploring additional applications for the UbiDuo for vented patients (intubated patients for breathing but talking is impossible), closed head injury patients (loss of control of vocal cords, stuttering, brain injury affecting speech, etc), Autistic patients and even patients with post-cancer laryngeal surgery. Any patient without the ability to utter speech could benefit from the communication device along with the added feature of wireless portability and the ability to save, print and post transcripts for their records.

Again, the UbiDuo is not in the business of replacing interpreters but rather in the business of providing greater communication freedom and choice in face-to-face situations. Over time this communication freedom will simply get better for us all.

Can you name other technology that has helped produce a shift in communication model thinking from deaf and hard of hearing people?

Building Bridges....?

Cochlear implants and hearing aids really do act as "bridges" between two worlds from one end to the next. Meaning that such devices help connect people with hearing loss with that of the hearing world. And not that they are per se "bridge builders" sounding much like some goodwill peace building effort. They are not. And they are certainly not "quick fixes" in the immediate sense because connecting with the hearing world can be a gradual process allowing time for adaptation to take place. The range of hearing loss is varied from mild to profound and hearing loss can occur while in the womb, as a young child or as an adult dealing with high frequency hearing loss (mild hearing loss) requiring a hearing aid that will certainly help quickly fix the problem to a good degree and re-establish the connection with the hearing world.

There are major differences when talking about connecting or bridging with the hearing world and that would be access to communication only versus access to communication and sound. An ASL interpreter or CART transcriber can help bridge the communication gap between deaf and hearing people (and to some extent the hearing world). But for a hearing aid or cochlear implant (and other soon to be advanced technological hearing devices) user it helps connect with hearing people and the hearing world of environmental sounds, music, and the verbal communication with the ability to understand and enjoy the melodious quality of other people’s voices. Yes, a melodious quality. These things have intrinsic value for the most of us. Most people cherish them more than others while others may simply not care for them for whatever reasons.

Here below is a video of the famous Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse in 1940 in Washington state. This bridge could be seen as representative of a "bridge to the hearing world" during a time throughout the 1950s, 60s, 70s or even 80s when hearing aid technology and oral education were somtime seen as "failures" by the Deaf community. And thus they are constantly "traumatized" thinking the engineering constructs of the past they've experienced are the same as today but they are not.



But as time moves forward better technology (digital hearing aids with artificial intelligence, cochlear implants, auditory neural implants, NanoEAR cochlea replacement, auditory brainstem implant, internet, cell phones, video phone, etc) coupled with better educational understanding and improved social services (e.g. relay services, interpreters, translitorators, CART, cued speech, etc) you get better and stronger bridges with the hearing world as time goes by, especially by those who are immersed in the world of sound who take advantages of such hearing technologies. The pace of technology is speeding up and has become more and more reliant.

This bridge of today has become increasingly more solid, increasingly longer and increasingly dependable where we get to see more interaction with more people nowadays. Larger gaps that effectively separate people from each other they are effectively being bridged with longer and more dependable bridges. There is no telling where technology and services will take us in the next 10 or 20 years. Bridging that large gap is something like having the world's longest bridge that's over a mile long. A time when a gap that wide once that impossible to close.



But we are just beginning to get better at building better access. Pretty soon we'll be building a bridge that's 18 miles long and that the separation from other people would no longer be a problem. Technology moves fast. Ideas move even faster. Choose wisely.